Episode Show Notes
Welcome to the sizth episode of this special short season of The Pilates Diaries Podcast created to support and promote the rebuilding of the business of industry colleague and long term Pilates teacher, Kimberley Garlick. Kimberley’s studio business, Northern Rivers Pilates in Lismore was completely submerged in the devastating floods that tore through the region in February and March earlier this year. In pursuit of getting their business back on its feet, Kimberley has reached out to her extensive industry network and along with studio manager and daughter, Madison have created the Teach to Preach Retreat that will run at their studio in Lismore, November 4th to 6th this year.
On this episode Kimberley welcomes Daniel Dittmar. Daniel began teaching Pilates back in 1998 while completing his applied science degree in Human Movement at QUT and since 2007 has been teaching courses throughout Asia for Polestar Pilates as one of their senior educators. Daniel loves incorporating elements from different forms of movement training across Exercise Physiology, Franklin Method, Anatomy Trains, Animal Flow, and was the pioneer "Runity" master trainer in Asia. He’s the owner and head instructor of two integrated movement and Physiotherapy clinics- Focus Movement Singapore and Focus Physio in Niseko Japan. Daniel’s presentations at the Northern Rivers Pilates Teach to Preach Retreat in November this year are firstly a lecture called ‘Unravel the Thoracic’ and will focus on improving movement of the thoracic spine as arguably one of the most important parts of the body to focus on as a practitioner. And secondly, a workshop on the Animal Flow movement system exploring multi-joint and multi-planar movements that will help the flow and integration of the principles of Pilates as well as challenge the so-called traditional concepts of joint stability. Enjoy
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Episode Transcript
Bruce Hildebrand: In the spirit of respect, The Pilates Diaries Podcast acknowledges the people and elders of the Bunurong people, members of the Kulin Nation, who have traditional connections and responsibilities for the land on which this podcast is produced.
Hi, I’m Bruce Hildebrand and this is The Pilates Diaries Podcast.
The mission of this podcast is to share the stories of the impact of Pilates. We’re inviting Pilates enthusiasts to share with us the notes they’ve taken down in their Pilates journey as we seek out the answers to the intrigue Pilates has been able to ignite inside millions all over the world. Our hope is that The Pilates Diaries Podcast goes some way to answering the question ” What is it that makes Pilates so special?”
Welcome to this special short season of The Pilates Diaries Podcast created to support and promote the rebuilding of the business of industry colleague and long term Pilates teacher, Kimberley Garlick. Kimberley’s studio business, Northern Rivers Pilates in Lismore was completely submerged in the devastating floods that tore through the region in February and March earlier this year. In pursuit of getting their business back on its feet, Kimberley has reached out to her extensive industry network and along with studio manager and daughter, Madison have created the Teach to Preach Retreat that will run at their studio in Lismore, November 4th to 6th this year.
Our presenter introduction on this episode is Daniel Dittmar. Daniel began teaching Pilates back in 1998 while completing his applied science degree in Human Movement at QUT and since 2007 has been teaching courses throughout Asia for Polestar Pilates as one of their senior educators. Daniel loves incorporating elements from different forms of movement training across Exercise Physiology, Franklin Method, Anatomy Trains, Animal Flow, and was the pioneer “Runity” master trainer in Asia. He’s the owner and head instructor of two integrated movement and Physiotherapy clinics- Focus Movement Singapore and Focus Physio in Niseko Japan. Daniel’s presentations at the Northern Rivers Pilates Teach to Preach Retreat in November this year are firstly a lecture called ‘Unravel the Thoracic’ and will focus on improving movement of the thoracic spine as arguably one of the most important parts of the body to focus on as a practitioner. And secondly, a workshop on the Animal Flow movement system exploring multi-joint and multi-planar movements that will help the flow and integration of the principles of Pilates as well as challenge the so-called traditional concepts of joint stability. Daniel, welcome to the podcast.
Daniel Dittmar: Thanks Bruce and thanks Kimberly for inviting me on the show
Kimberley Garlick: Thank you so much for joining us Dan. It’s really nice to, first of all, have you here on the podcast. super excited about you traveling out to Australia to the Teach to Preach and feel very privileged that you’re making the effort to come over and share your knowledge. I thought we’d start with how your Pilates journey started?
Daniel Dittmar: Yeah, I’m, super excited about coming and joining the Retreat in November. My Pilates journey started when I was doing my human movement degree in Brisbane- I graduated from my degree in 1999 and as part of my practicum, I signed up for a Rehabilitation Centre to do my practicum and I walked in there and I see the usual gym equipment and behind that I see these rows of metallic Reformers and Cadillacs and all that kind of stuff.
Kimberley Garlick: Where was that Dan?
Daniel Dittmar: That was in Rehabilitation Dynamics, it was an affiliate of Wesley Hospital in Brisbane, that was 1998.
Kimberley Garlick: I actually wasn’t aware that they had that Pilates rehabilitation program going.
Daniel Dittmar: Yeah, they were, based on Clinical- so they were trained through Craig Phillips and they were doing semi-private style of Pilates and they started to teach me how to supervise the sessions and it was pretty amazing- I’d been so used to gym training for so long that this was just totally different actually.
Kimberley Garlick: And then where from there did you go?
Daniel Dittmar: From my practicum I was offered a part-time job to continue to work with them and while I was there, I heard about a resort in Thailand. A place called Chiva-Som this resort was looking for Pilates instructors and I thought “Oh, Thailand, resort, Pilates, I’ve got to apply. I got one of the positions there- at the time the number one destination Spa Resort in the world, which is pretty amazing! I’d never traveled overseas so I had to get my passport to go and I had left Australia one week after my last university exam and arrived at this amazing resort so that was an amazing all round experience three years there- incredible. Actually at the time I hadn’t had any official certification training which is really interesting how my career developed, I ended up coming into Thailand and being a so-called expert in Pilates, but not having any certification.
Kimberley Garlick: I was going to say you learnt a very traditional way, how you used to actually go into a studio and learn the method and that’s your qualifications. Actual certification came much later.
Daniel Dittmar: And that’s what I very much appreciate about Rehabilitation Dynamics that was the case there, but when I went to Thailand I didn’t have a senior more experienced Pilates instructor. Lynne Robinson came a couple times really fantastic lady- I really love her- great on so many levels- so she really helped to expand my knowledge I understand you’ve done some training with her as well.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s a coincidence because my time in the UK in Pilates started in ’99 and I was certainly inspired by Lynne and the work that she’d done with Gordon Thompson and Helge Fisher- they’d written a couple of books together and put together a training course so that was inspiring for me in the early days to see that structure and that curriculum for sure.
Daniel Dittmar: Yeah, so my training at the time was limited to when Lynne came for visits I was there for three years and I was 22, 23 year old living in a health resort! But it was quite isolated- some of it was self-induced I guess we had an ex-pat group of about 20 people and we had a really great time, we were mixing with celebrities and royalty and we were just getting into training our guests, but we were really removed from the outside world. I mean, I guess I was experienced for the industry there at the time, but a long, long way off where I was fortunate enough to be trained to become through Polestar.
Kimberley Garlick: The thing is, I think all three of us can relate to this, we were all thrown into the deep end at some stage, because we were in that Pilates world at the early stages and it was sink or swim! It was our passion for what we do that had us search for other ways to advance our knowledge and training and develop what we were starting to fall in love with. For you- your first trip overseas, and you never came back.
Daniel Dittmar: Yeah, left in 1999 and I’ve never had a full time job in Australia actually. So three years in Thailand and now 20 years in Singapore.
Kimberley Garlick: The uncanny thing here is when I met Daniel, I didn’t know that he was Australian- I just knew him as the Singapore host. It turns out that he actually grew up half an hour from where I live- hence, a friendship was very easy to develop.
Daniel Dittmar: I was born in Lismore actually, and my mum went to Corndale school, which is where Kimberly lives.
Kimberley Garlick: Literally the school that has 15 kids down the road that still runs today- so a lot of coincidence! But from Thailand, you then moved to where?
Daniel Dittmar: From Thailand I moved to Singapore- I was offered a managing position of a place called COMO Shambhala in Singapore, a combined yoga and Pilates studio. They have several resorts as well, I did a bit of work in designing their gyms and I was with them for about a year and a half. That’s when I started my first company which was in corporate health- that’s where I’m met Andrew Nichols, who started Focus Pilates and I met Donna Wayburn who’s the curriculum director of Polestar, who’s been extremely influential in my development of my Pilates career- it’s really been amazing I’ve had the privilege to work with her for so many years!
Kimberley Garlick: You mentioned Donna Wayburn- Donna is amazing because her influence of Pilates is huge and works very closely with Polestar International and Brent, but also is a phenomenal Gyrotonics trainer, so when you actually get the opportunity to work with Donna, she is coming from a Pilates space but then has all this creativity of both verbal, tactile cues, everything coming from another aspect of her Gyrotonics training, so it does add another dimension to her teaching.
Daniel Dittmar: Absolutely, and just the depth of experience. I think it’s one thing for us to be certified in comprehensive trainings but it’s just the tip of the iceberg- it’s the years of experience of dealing with different clients and working with different colleagues and exposure to different influences in your career, which makes a big difference. And for Donna it’s massive- it just blows your mind the amount of experience that she has and the depth of knowledge and understanding of exercise, understanding of clients and queuing and like you said, she has that Gyrotonic aspect and it’s really been great to have that exposure to her.
Kimberley Garlick: So when did you start Focus?
Daniel Dittmar: Focus started by my friend in 2004, Andrew Nichols. I was working with him at the time- at the time I was doing too many different things, and I had an opportunity to take over the business so I took over Focus Pilates as it was called back then in 2007. Just prior to that I was doing things like lecturing for an exercise in sport and science diploma, I had a corporate health company, I was doing personal training, I had a small joint venture with a traditional Chinese medicine herb company having a restaurant and consultancy to manage it. So when I took over Focus in 2007, I got rid of all of that and focused on Pilates- which is really good- I mean, I was diversifying too much- I was doing too many different things and spread thin, so for me to be able to just get into Pilates only at the time was really perfect.
Kimberley Garlick: Was that your first certification of Polestar?
Daniel Dittmar: Yeah so Polestar was actually my first official certification and that was really quite amazing because even though I’ve done a four year sports science degree, I’ve been teaching Pilates and personal training for many years, I really feel that’s when I started to understand movement better. So despite the tertiary degree, it was really Pilates which gave me a much clearer insight into movement!
Kimberley Garlick: Dan, when you were talking about all the things that you used to do, knowing you as first of all a colleague and then developing our friendship- you are like a little battery that never stops! You talk about you took some of the things away from you, but you’ve still got all these different umbrellas open, but now it’s just focused on your business. Hence why I think it’s so successful I had the privilege of working in your studio a number of times now and the energy is exactly that because of how much input you generate into your business and it’s really commendable and you feel that amongst your staff, amongst your clients and a very successful business over in Singapore.
Daniel Dittmar: I guess I went from juggling Pilates, including many other things into juggling everything in the business Pilates related. So I still juggle things, but it’s all related to Pilates but I am very grateful. I have that opportunity just to focus on the business. I did the Polestar education, I’m the host for Polestar in Singapore. I go for meetings with my marketing manager, my operation manager, and then I go and teach group classes and private class clients, and that’s still a little bit difficult sometimes to juggle the different hats, but at least it’s all focused around Pilates.
Kimberley Garlick: So with all that history, what are you going to be teaching, and why have you chosen to teach this at our retreat program?
Daniel Dittmar: I guess it kind of mirrors my development in teaching movements. I started in Brisbane as an Exercise Physiologist and I was using things like the pressure bio feedback- you use that to detect micro movements of your back basically a cushion, what you put underneath your back and if your back moves it presses on the cushion and then you have a pressure meter, which shows you that the pressure is increasing or decreasing, which then reflects whether your back is arching or pressing into the floor. So using the pressure bio feedback was very much about controlling movements- and that’s how my Pilates teaching started off, which is more about controlling movements and in some respects, I think unfortunately from some of my clients back then that maybe I prevented movement with the goal of trying to create good movements. This is what I’ve slowly been getting away from and this is where Polestar’s come in and given me a lot of different options for queuing and, you know, it’s okay for certain movements and from then I start to get a little more playful with movements now, a little bit more free and less rigid if you like about the rules and allowing people to move as long as it’s safe movement is a fantastic thing. I think sometimes as instructors, we get a little bit too rigid making sure things are perfect.
Bruce Hildebrand: Daniel, could you summarize for us the chunks of information that allowed you to strike a balance between the structure of what you have worked with over a long time and the more playful/freedom/exploring- type work that you’re, now gravitating towards where’s that balance been for you?
Daniel Dittmar: I guess it’s happened over a couple of years both through Kimberley’s classes I’ve been joining Kimley’s workshops and classes for many years and I really love how creative she is and how you can think out of the box and you can combine things like the barrel and the trapeze table and exposure through Brent Anderson, Juan Nieto, who’s been a massive impact on me and I did a Runity course with Juan a couple of years ago and a lot of his Runity course is about play it’s about movement- it’s about challenging ranges of motion and strength, but in a less formalized way. I just really enjoyed it, it was just so much fun and I felt myself being more challenged and working to a higher level because it was just fun rather than structured exercise and I really, really appreciated that.
Kimberley Garlick: I love how we’re evolving Pilates now because I think all three of us remember those times where it was like a knee float and do not let that knee pass that hip line and everything had to move completely in a mechanical way. We are exploring movements so much more with the foundations of Pilates guiding us all the time. The whole process of this Retreat is all these minds coming together giving you that opportunity to explore movement even further because we are coming from quite different modalities, all of us.
Daniel Dittmar: I think it’s important to be guided by principles- but I feel sometimes choreography can get in the way of that. As long as the movement’s safe and it’s going to produce good outcomes for clients, we need them to move.
Kimberley Garlick: And we’re looking at the whole thoracic movement in your lecture?
Daniel Dittmar: Yeah so for me thoracic mobility has always been a little bit of a thing I’ve struggled with in how to teach. When we have things like prone press up, which is meant be one of the more fundamental thoracic extension movements, the thing is when you have someone that has a challenge with thoracic extension, even doing prone press up- the movement goes straight into the lower back. I just remember being really frustrated like, well, if this is meant to be a foundation movement as it is then, it’s just really not very efficient in teaching thoracic movements. So, through my training with Juan and also many other different instructors, I’ve started to play around with how to position the body things like position the clients in deep hip flexion, which produces lumbar flexion, which blocks the lumbar spine- and then we can really target the thoracic spine. It’s just about changing things up a little bit creating a setup or an initial position which really facilitates the movement. That I really have enjoyed working on the last couple of years.
Bruce Hildebrand: The parallels there again, Dan- it’s funny, you just try a few things every now and then you’re like, that’s the answer I’ve been looking for so long? If I’m already in this preparedness position to want to just dump into the lumbar spine when I’m trying to do some thoracic extension, what about if I set it up first that I’m not going to be doing that for me, it was straddling the Gyrotonic bench, doing the thoracic movement- that’s very strong focus in that primary foundational work of Gyrotonics is an amazing way to access the thoracic spine.
Daniel Dittmar: Yeah, love Gyrotonic- it’s really an amazing form of movement and so complimentary to Pilates, I find. The thing is we all have our default compensating movement patterns that we’ve had for years- it’s about creating a new environment, which blocks our typical patterns and facilitates the movement that we’re really trying to work on.
Kimberley Garlick: Is it more of a lecture style or are you doing a lot of movement with it Dan? How are you going to structure this?
Daniel Dittmar: I do want to have a bit of integration in this because my background is quite analytical so I do want to go through a little bit of theory about thoracic spine, a little bit of theory about facet joints and how they influence movement. The effect of thoracic spine on scapular movement as well. I really want to play around with different positions on the different equipment and play around with how we can do traditional exercises, but just change the structure a little bit.
Kimberley Garlick: Awesome! We’re privileged to have you do two workshops- the other one is Animal Flow. Can you give us a bit of a description and how you became certified in Animal Flow?
Daniel Dittmar: Animal Flow it’s a form of movement which is based on quadriped movements. They’re movements which tend to flow into each other so it’s a very dynamic movement. Just to be clear, I’m not a animal flow educator, but I am certified. What I’m going to be presenting there is more in terms of a a movement class because what I found as I did the Animal Flow- the ranges of motion that I was going into, the strength I was developing through multiple planes and changes of angles was really quite incredible and I felt so amazing. Whereas in many forms of exercise, traditionally speaking like Pilates we tend to be very planar- sagittal plane, frontal plane, transverse plane. Whereas this is just, you know, you’re having to work on your strength and mobility and flowing from one movement to another in a very constant movement. I just found this is really complimentary. Let’s say, you’re looking at a weight bearing exercise and I’m just talking about traditional Pilates- so let’s say Leg Pull Front- you know, you’re weight bearing in a sagital plane, you’re working through some hip extension you’re challenging pelvis and spine stability. In terms of our nervous system and how our neuromuscular system responds, it’s quite a predictable pattern. But in something like Animal Flow- because you are moving your body around your shoulder- it’s taking your nervous system through so many different ranges of motion that I feel it’s very beneficial for the body to try and adapt to those different positions.
Kimberley Garlick: So before I prep myself for this class- which I am excited to participate in- do I bring a sweat towel is it going to be a full on workout?
Daniel Dittmar: It’s quite tough actually- the individual poses themselves- that’s challenging, but as soon as we put it into a flow I guess you could probably relate a little bit to like Ashtanga yoga where you go from one pose into another. Definitely it generates a lot of heat, there’s a lot of strength and a lot of demand on joint stability,
Kimberley Garlick: I’m excited. that’ll be great! Daniel, you have such a vast knowledge and experience, and we have this privilege now to hear you present. Give us the main things that you have found influential in your development as a instructor, presenter to bring you where you are now.
Daniel Dittmar: The first thing is a foundation in good movement- this is what I really appreciate about Polestar- it gives a very solid foundation and this is what I recommend for anyone- some kind of comprehensive program which gives you the rules of movement. Teaches you how to recognize good movement, good posture, good alignment and that I think is really critical that you have that foundation first I have my exercise physiology, my personal training, I had exposure to Anatomy Trains, Franklin Method and then Juan’s Runity training, which was really very playful and amazing how it challenged me in different ranges of motion and strength. So these started to open my mind about movement and what was acceptable and what’s good and what’s going to benefit someone- those are the main influences. And the number of Polestar educators have done training with there’s a very long list from Brent and Shelley, yourself, Kimberly and Alexander- there’s loads of different Polestar educators which all have such a diverse background.
Kimberley Garlick: And on that, Dan- we have had the privilege of being at many conferences at the same time- can you remember something that was very pertinent maybe a light bulb moment that had stuck with you?
Daniel Dittmar: I don’t know if there’s any one statement- one thing I do appreciate from Juan is he’s very playful with his movements, very creative- but on the other hand his knowledge and understanding of the latest research papers is amazing. So that’s what I really appreciate- he’s not just creative for the sake of being creative. What he does is so research based and he often challenges Brent sometimes on, some of the research papers! I really admire the fact that a lot of the stuff that he’s done is research based, but then it’s also so free in terms of the movement and challenges in the body.
Kimberley Garlick: I’ve had the privilege of working with Juan as well and every single person that’s coming on this retreat is the same- there is such a strong base of humility to the quantity of knowledge that they have- and I think that is what draws us in even more and it’s the same with yourself Daniel you have so much knowledge and foundation to what you are teaching but again, there is that humble presence that makes you so personable- and Juan probably why you were attracted to his teaching style is because of that humility that comes with that knowledge and experience.
Daniel Dittmar: Yeah, it’s been really quite an interesting journey and I’m very grateful for all of my teachers, for sure. I’m so looking forward to this conference the people that you have coming, people you are presenting really very talented I’m so looking forward to meeting them.
Kimberley Garlick: Awesome. Dan, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast, and I can’t wait to see you in Australia and look forward to what you’ve got to present on the day.
Daniel Dittmar: Thank you so much Kimberley and thank you Bruce- it’s been a pleasure chatting to you guys and I’m really looking forward to November as well- I think it’s going to be a really amazing weekend- looking forward to it.
Bruce Hildebrand: We hope you enjoyed this episode of The Pilates Diaries Podcast. Drop us a comment online at the links in the show notes, and be sure to subscribe and rate the podcast to keep updated with episode releases and hear more stories from our guests’ Pilates Diaries. This podcast is made possible by the following sponsors- keep an ear out for exclusive Pilates Diaries Podcast listener discount codes. Thanks for listening. The Pilates Diaries Podcast is a proud partner with TRIMIO. TRIMIO is a much needed space and time utilization booking system for the Pilates industry. With TRIMIO you can return your focus to delivering the highest value to your customers. No longer be lost to the encumbrances of inefficient interactions and experience a new level of working freedom with the power of technology automation doing what it should. Maximize your profitability by optimizing the utilization of your time and physical space with TRIMIO. Find out more at www.TRIMIO.app.
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